Friday, 1 August 2025

LEARNING FROM OTHERS

 

                LEARNING FROM OTHERS

            “Learning from others” is indispensable. No body’s own knowledge, however vast it may be, is complete on any subject. It is always limited, or as the English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) said “little”, and which, according to him is dangerous.   

            Bookish learning is of poor quality. It is quickly forgettable. Moreover, it is not exhaustive. There are thousands of books on subjects like God, man, religion, love, friendship, wealth, poverty, all the cardinal virtues and deadly sins, yet we feel dearth of them.

           

            Experience is rightly considered the best teacher.  You will come across innumerable persons who never went to any school, yet their knowledge about life and work is amazingly vast.

           

            Learning from others means adding their knowledge to your own. Some of the quotes related to them are full of wit and wisdom.

 

Here are a few examples:

 

*The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.--  English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704).

 

*The evening of a well-spent life brings its lamps with it. --- French essayist Joseph Joubert (1754-1824).

 

*Foolish men mistake transitory semblances for eternal fact, and go astray more and more.---Scottish essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle(1795-18881).

 

* A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side,---British writer Joseph Addison (1672-1719).

 

*Men err from selfishness; women because they are weak. ---French author Madam De Stael (1766-1817).

 

*He alone has lost the art to live who cannot win new friends. –American author Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914).

 

*Idleness is the key of beggary, and the root of all evil.—English clergy Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892).

 

*A man’s own good breeding is the best security against other people’s ill manners. –English courtier and orator Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield

(1694-1773).

 

*Responsibility educates,---American orator Wendell Phillips(1811-18884).

 

*Love is loveliest when embalmed in tears.---Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832).

 

                                                            ******

G.R.Kanwal

1st August 2025

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